Comic Book Resources

Your other video of the day: Nino Falanga, world's fastest cartoonist

I dunno about world's fastest, but that is pretty fast. Courtesy of Mike Lynch:

[Falanga] did work behind the camera, for the animation departments at MGM and UPA, and did live action film and TV work (both behind and in front of the camera) in the US, Italy and Spain.

Here he is on the American game show To Tell the Truth. The celebrity panel is composed of Kitty Carlisle, Durwood Kirby, Gene Rayburn and Peggy _____ (I forget her last name- she was on a zillion game shows in the 60s and 70s). While the celebrities are guessing who is the real cartoonist, the contestants are drawing caricatures of them.

Who was that masked Fantagraphics cartoonist?

Well, that's Like A Dog author Zak Sally above, but Fanta has a whole Flickr set full of photos of some of their most notable creators and contributors, which is great if you ever wanted to know what Jason or Richard Sala looked like. (Note: Fanta's Mike Baehr notes that some of these photos are kinda old, and asks not to use them for press/publicity purposes, mkay?)

New Yorker celebrates birthday with Ware, Tomine, Clowes, Brunetti

Yes, the New Yorker

Heidi MacDonald and D&Q beat me to the punch, but just in case you missed the news, I thought I'd let you know that this week's issue of The New Yorker magazine is sporting four swell covers by Chris Ware, Daniel Clowes, Adrian Tomine and Ivan Brunetti. Supposedly when you arrange the four covers together in a certain way, a super-secret picture forms. Alright, I'll spoil it: It's a picture of Eustace Tilly. It must be one of those "Magic Eye" type images though, because I've been staring at the bloody things for hours on end, and all I'm getting is a headache.

Your video of the day: That creepy Crumb figure

Courtesy of Comics Alliance comes this short video of that R. Crumb figurine I mentioned last week. And hey, it does come with a big-boned female fantasy figure! And Fritz the Cat too! How about that.

Comics cavalcade: Panther women, pyramids and Disney role-playing

zRitz by Scott McCloud (NSFW)

EcoCOMIC by Yuichi Yokoyama

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Preview: '120 Days of Simon'

120 Days of Simon

Last week (or thereabouts) Top Shelf announced The Swedish Invasion, a publishing campaign by the company to help North American readers become more aware of Sweden's apparently abundant comic goodness by releasing a plethora of graphic novels from some of that country's more notable talents this spring.

We here at Robot 6 are pleased as punch to present a preview of three of these upcoming works this week, starting with 120 Days of Simon by Simon Gardenfors.

Simon is Gardenfors' chronicle of his trip across Sweden. I'll quote liberally from the press release:

The 120 Days of Simon began when Swedish cartoonist/rapper Simon Gärdenfors left his home to spend four months on the road. The rules were simple: For 120 days he wasn't allowed to return to his home, or to spend more than two nights at the same place. Otherwise, anything could happen... and it did.

This simple idea grew into an epic adventure across Sweden as Simon slept on strangers' couches, visited an ostrich farm, ate a psychedelic cactus, practiced free love, received death threats, was beaten up by teenagers, got adopted by a motorcycle gang, drank obscene amounts of alcohol, and sacrificed his underpants to the Nordic god Brage. And that's just for starters!

Apparently the book's publication caused a bit of consternation in his home country. Anyway, the preview of Simon lies in wait after the jump. Look for previews of more Swedish comics from Top Shelf in the days to come.

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Send Us Your Tat Porn!

Well, I asked and you answered. Last week I inquired whether anyone out there had any interesting comic-related tattoos they'd be interested in sharing with the rest of the Robot 6 community. And while I wasn't necessarily bowled over with submissions, I did get a couple of interesting responses, which you can find after the jump ...

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What Are You Reading?

Young Liars Vol. 3

Well, the snowstorm that socked the East Coast may have shut down everything from Virginia to Philadelphia, but it won't stop the What Are You Reading train from keepin' on a rollin'. Our guest this week is Phonogram, Thor and S.W.O.R.D. scribe Kieron Gillen, who was kind enough to offer his thoughts on his current reading matter. To find out what exactly he is reading, click on the link below.

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Straight for the sculpture | Anyone order a Robert Crumb statue?

The eyes ... they follow me wherever I go ...

For the past eight years, Seattle-based artist Michael Leavitt has created a series of sculpted figures of famous artists and entertainers like Andy Warhol, David Byrne, David Lynch and so forth. Now he's made one of comics legend and Bible adapter Robert Crumb:

This fully articulated wood-carved sculpture was commissioned by an out-of-state collector. Before it ships off to the private collection, the piece will be put on public display at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery for one night only during the reception for Gahan Wilson on Saturday, February 13. If you can't make it then, you can view Leavitt's recent work, including collaborations with Fantagraphics friend Charles Krafft, at Stolen Space Gallery in London May 13 through May 30.

Click on the link to see another shot of the statue hawking his wares at a table. Large-bottomed Amazonian sexual fantasy figure is presumably not included.

Your video of the day: Brodner on Zinn

Editorial cartoonist par excellence Steve Brodner draws a caricature of the late Howard Zinn in real time.

Straight for the art | 'Pop Unintentional'

Left: 'Captain America; Right: 'Gossip'

I really dig these abstracted superhero paintings by Bob Kessel. Apparently they're part of a new exhibit of his work entitled "Pop Unintentional." The good news is some are available as prints, in case that Lilli Carre piece I mentioned earlier doesn't do it for you.

Straight for the art | Carre's 'Sleep Heap'

Carre's 'Sleep Heap'

Looking for something purty to hang on your wall? Here's a lovely new print from Lilli Carre that she did for Tiny Showcase. If you need further incentive, Carre says a portion of the proceeds will go toward Doctors Without Borders.

Send Us Your Shelf Porn!

Here at Shelf Porn Central, we're not size conscious. We know it's not the number of shelves you have, but what's on them that counts.

That's why today we're featuring not one but two collections. They are perhaps a wee bit smaller than some of the more ostentatious offerings we've had in the past, but they're filled out in all the right places.

The first collection of photos comes from Doug Goodwin in Cartersville, Georgia. The second is from Jesse Young, founder and co-president of Saint James Comics.  Click on the link to see their pics.

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High Fever: An interview with Brendan McCarthy

Spider-Man: Fever #1

One of the biggest problems with comics these days is that Brendan McCarthy simply isn't making enough of them.

The UK artist, known mainly for his inspired and frequently surreal collaborations with writer Peter Milligan during the 1980s and 90s, (most notably Skin and Rogan Gosh) hasn't produced any sequential art since his mind-bending issue of Solo (fittingly the last issue in that late, lamented series) six years ago, a comic which in itself marked a lengthy hiatus. In between those periods, McCarthy has opted instead to mostly work on various television and movie projects like Reboot, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movies and most recently a potential fourth Mad Max sequel.

Thankfully Marvel is about to change all that. The company that Disney bought has enlisted McCarthy to write and draw Spider-Man: Fever, a three-issue limited series starring the wall-crawler and Dr. Strange that will arrive in stores this April (or at least the first issue will).

I talked to McCarthy over email about the new series and the challenges it offered.

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Comics cavalcade: Backwards goldfish wrestling

Violence Becomes Tranquility by Shinobu Kaze

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